How corridors of justice have been turned into dens of bribery

Lawyers and court users have raised the alarm over what appears to be increasing cases of corruption touching on accused persons.

Investigations by People Daily team reveal that the agony along the corridors of justice start when you are arrested and booked at the police station.

While a cash bail or free bond is supposed to be a right, in many police stations, it has a price tag.

According to details gathered by the team, since most suspects fear spending the night in the cells, their relatives or friends part with a bribe ranging from Sh5,000 to Sh20,000 depending on the weight of the offence, to enable police free the suspect on cash bail or free bond pending the court due date.

However, if a suspect is unable to heed the demands by the police, he or she is locked up in police cells pending arraignment in court.

Unknown to many Kenyans, the bribes are against the Police Force Standing Orders which require the officer in charge of a police station to release any person arrested on a minor charge on the security of a cash bail.

This is a general rule, unless the officer has good grounds for believing the arrested person will not attend court when required to do so. But that law has since been discarded by station commanders.

Details obtained from most police stations also show that police continued to hold several suspects in the cells after failing to part with the bribe in complete disregard of the 24-hour rule that requires them to have either released the suspect or charged him/her.

Earlier this month, veteran rights lawyer John Khaminwa, who has been in practice for close to 70 years, protested in court over a decision by the Central Police Station in Nairobi to hold over 50 suspects arrested over anti-government demonstrations in one small room.

Social amenities

Khaminwa told Milimani Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina that he was utterly shocked to see smartly dressed suspects peeing and answering long calls of nature at a corner of the Central Police Station cells where they were also breaking their night fast.

“It is unthinkable and unheard of for respected Kenyans to be held in such demeaning conditions. I urge lawmakers to move a bill in Parliament for the establishment of a commission to look into the condition of all police stations countrywide with a view to construct modern holding facilities with social amenities,” Khaminwa said.

The lawyer also urged Onyina whose court is served by the majority police station within Nairobi to address the issue administratively to ensure that rights of suspects are upheld.

Once a suspect is through with the ordeal at the police, he or she moves to the next real stage…being arraigned in court where open bribery controlled and executed by some faceless cartels rule.

Delayed trial, slow processing of bail and special treatment of those with deep pockets are some of the hard realities faced by suspects in the criminal justice system.

Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Eric Theuri has asked his members to compile such incidents to enable him take them up with Chief Justice Martha Koome.

“LSK has received numerous concerns from our members regarding the services provided by the Judiciary ranging from delays in delivery of judgment, delays in court starting time, corruption and incompetence among others,” Theuri’s alert to the society’s members states in part.

But Judiciary’s Deputy Registrar (automation) Elizabeth Tanui says they have put in place measures to weed out corruption in the processing of documents and service delivery.

“In order to ensure an end-to-end automated user experience, the Judiciary is in the process of enabling the various Plea Courts across the country to have personnel stationed in the plea courts for purposes of assisting the litigants make payments and ensure that the process is seamless,” Tanui told People Daily.

Charge sheet

Investigations by People Daily established that a section of law offenders end up spending the night in remand due to late processing of bails that result from delayed court appearance.

Though police produce suspects in court as early as 7am, they end up taking plea in the afternoon or few minutes to the closure of court working hours, making it impossible for them to raise and deposit bail since the Judiciary cash office or the nearest Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) or KCB mtaani has been closed.

The delay starts from the registration of the charge sheet in line with the new rules introduced by Chief Justice Martha Koome that require police together with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to ensure all new charges levelled against suspects are registered in the Judiciary E-Filing System before they are forwarded to the presiding magistrate or Judge.

This new arrangement has necessitated the delay of arraigning suspects to plead to the charges, pushing the process too late in the day, with the suspect ending up spending another night in remand.

A recent case in point was when 73 protesters on July 10, 2023 were escorted into the court premises at 8:45am under heavy security and detained in the basement cells at Milimani and by 12.45pm, no charge sheet had been registered against them.

The demonstrators who had spent the entire weekend in police cells would have spent more days in custody had their lawyers led by John Khaminwa not questioned the continuous delay by the State to prosecute them.
The lawyers who had arrived in court had to interrupt the court session conducted by Onyina demanding to know whether their clients were set to be charged or not.
It was at that juncture that the prosecutor revealed to the court that the protestors would not be charged.
Khaminwa now wants the court to come up with mechanisms to enable pleas to be registered by 9am with the magistrates prioritising them to enable accused persons to raise and pay the bail terms imposed by the court.
However, for those without lawyers representing them, they have to wait the entire day before they answer the charges.
After a long wait in the holding cells, the suspect pleads to the charges and the process of being released on bond or bail begins. This is where cartels reign supreme.

Deposit slip
Faceless people that jam the court corridors, who ironically work in cahoots with court orderlies, charge between Sh5,000 and 20,000 to expedite the processing of bail and bond documents.
The process begins from the magistrate’s or judge’s chambers where one has to produce “facilitation fee” to have the file taken to the registry where he or she has to part with a bribe to be issued with a clearance note to make the payments at the bank.
From the bank, one has once again to part with some fee to have that bank deposit slip acknowledged at the registry before taking it to the police cells for a release.
A victim who sought anonymity for fear of antagonising the police because she has an active matter, says she spent five hours along the court corridors as she sought to pay a Sh30,000 cash bail for her nephew.
She added that the officers at the registry whom she sought assistance from to get an official note which she would use to pay the bail, all feigned being too busy and instead kept her waiting.
According to her, after waiting for almost one and half hours she was approached by a “middle man” who asked him to part with some Sh5,000 to facilitate the entire process.
Since it was around 4:20pm and her nephew had been removed from the holding police cells section to the prison section in readiness to board the prison bus (popularly known as Moody Awori hopper), used to ferry prisoners, she had to part with the cash to save him from being taken to Industrial area remand.

Food fee
She says she was surprised by the turn of events as the process that had taken almost five hours only took 30 minutes to be completed and her nephew released as other suspects unable to raise the bribes were taken to remand.
For the privileged persons especially politicians and prominent businessmen the treatment is different since they pay not to be detailed at the cells.
Depending on how deep one’s pockets are, he or she is made to wait for the charges from the courtroom instead of holding police cells as their lawyers or relatives process their bail terms.
Further, since there is no food provided for suspects who have been arraigned in court for the first time, police take advantage of the situation to demand for money from the suspects to facilitate them getting food and drinks before they are charged.
 Investigations indicate that officers charge the hungry suspects depending on their moods (police) with the cheapest food, which comprises chips and a quarter chicken going for Sh1,000.

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